Advocates hope to preserve Pennhurst complex

EAST VINCENT — Minorities, women and Native Americans are not the only ones underrepresented among the preserved historic places of the nation.

The former Pennhurst State School and Hospital outside Spring City might be the most important historical property in the country that represents the history, struggles and change in attitude toward the developmentally disabled.

At least that is how the Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance views it.

Opened in 1908 on 1,400 rolling acres as the Eastern Pennsylvania Institution for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, Pennhurst was a self-sustained campus of 25 buildings that included workshops, a firehouse, a fully functioning farm and a barber shop, among other things.

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Intended to isolate its residents from the rest of society, it house 3,500 patients at its peak occupancy in space federal regulations later determined to be habitable for just 700.

Eventually it became famous for unsanitary conditions and the degrading and abusive treatment of its patients.

Alerted to conditions there by reporting in The Pottstown Mercury, an NBC investigative report in 1968 brought the plight of Pennhurst patients to the attention of the nation and sparked a series of lawsuits which culminated in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that forced institutionalization of disabled people was unconstitutional.

Now regarded as the epicenter for the modern disability rights movement, Pennhurst closed in 1986 and its remaining 460 patients were discharged or transferred to other facilities.

A non-profit organization, the Alliance had Pennhurst named as an “International Site of Conscience, part of a worldwide network of “Sites of Conscience” – historic sites specifically dedicated to remembering past struggles for justice and addressing their contemporary legacies,” according to the group’s web site.

Pottsgrove High School graduate Nathaniel Guest founded the group and is also teaching two classes on “the ethics of preservation” at Cornell University.

He said that like the stories of the roles minorities and women played in the nation’s history, the story of the intellectually and developmentally people who lived at Pennhurst is one that must be preserved — and preserving some part of Pennhurst is the best way to do it.

“If Pennhurst is gone, there is no physical

“So often the decision about what to preserve or what to let go is made at a time when the understanding of the historical importance of a site has not yet gelled,” Guest said.

Which is to say that “in some ways, historical preservation has matured,” said Guest. “The decision about what not to save has become as important as the decision about what should be saved.”

“Consider the homes of the slaves. They were, in all likelihood taken down at a time when their contribution to the historical narrative of their time was not considered significant,” he said, adding “obviously, we would not make that same choice today.”

So when asking whether Pennhurst should be preserved, Guest argued, we should be asking whether the story of what happened there has “gelled” yet.

“Pennhurst is a contested landscape,” Guest said.

The establishment two years ago of a haunted Halloween attraction at the site created a controversy and, ironically, may have raised awareness of the story Guest thinks needs to be told about Pennhurst.

In 2011, Urban Partners consultants produced for Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance a financial feasibility analysis of whether the finances of preserving some or all of Pennhurst could work.

It concluded that with the help of $10 million in grants, 10 of the 25 buildings could be converted into 286 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $1,325 to just under $2,000 per month.

Guest said a site the size of Pennhurst makes complete preservation impractical.

“It’s impossible to turn the entire site into a museum,” he said.

“But some attempt should be made to preserve the physical fabric, but it has to happen in a planned, phased way,” said Guest.

Turning some of the buildings into apartments as a away to preserve the campus and the “physical fabric” is one way to ensure the story of Pennhurst is told with a level of integrity.

“The issue that has to be addressed is how do we re-use many of these buildings in a may that we don’t whitewash if and so that the understanding of its significance in the future is not compromised,” he said.

Guest said is the owner of the property is “open to preservation” being done there and added that he presented the owner with a copy of the Urban Partners analysis.

Attempts Friday to interview Tim Smith regarding the future development Pennhurst were unsuccessful.

The Pennhurst campus is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Recognizing Pennhurst’s significance and the serious threats to its future, Preservation Pennsylvania named it one of the Commonwealth’s most endangered treasures for 2008.

And, in its annual publication — “Pennsylvania At Risk” — Preservation Pennsylvania highlighted Pennhurst as one of Pennsylvania’s historic resources that are “at risk.”

“Finally, there is an opening for a creative developer to restore this place, so long a white elephant on our landscape and our collective conscience. Reusing these buildings is, of course, a preservation win with all of the environmental and economic benefits that entails,” Guest said in the publication.

The Alliance “hopes that a portion of the property will be used as a Center for Conscience, to preserve the lessons and stories of those forced to live at Pennhurst,” according to “Pennsylvania At Risk,” which added that the Alliance “hopes to create a modest memorial and museum on the campus, while reusing the property in a manner that provides economic and environmental benefits to the region.”